you are here.

and by "you," i mean my mom. she was here, for a whole week! and it was the best.

except those are my feet.^ this is my mom:

since she's been here before and 'been there & done that' to all the really touristy things, and since it was cma fest over the weekend and nashville was tourist-central, we did more low-key things. like make potato salad (my mom's potato salad, you guys, it is the absolute best) and hang out on the couch and watch episode after episode of friday night lights (she's never seen it!) and walk around the park and wait for the bells to play songs and eat out at my restaurant and a few other delicious places. things like that. plus, my mom's idea of a vacation is relaxing and having minimal planned activities anyway, so she loved it. she kept telling me all week how she didn't care. "you choose," she'd say. "i'm on vacation."

we did do the opry thing again though, because carrie underwood was performing and how could we not? plus josh turner was there and let me just tell you something about josh turner. that man can sing, and he looks real good doing it too.

we were sitting in the balcony, but i snapped a few photos to document.

she's the glowing figure in the top photo and the bottom one proves it's really her. (;

my roommate! we do sometimes take pictures together.

it was so good to have my mom here with me for a week. it was like having a piece of comfort and home all these miles away. my whole life feels like an adventure because it's so far away and so new and different and so grown up. and i'll be honest, sometimes it is just plain exhausting, even after (almost) a year. so i loved having her here and just being able to hang out (and eat home cooked meals!), especially because i still had to work during the day, which meant i was still tired and cranky by the end of the day. but my mom is so gracious and loving and always ready with a hershey bar when i need one.

she is the best.